Zen Teh
An Ongoing Series
The Imperative Landscape
The Imperative Landscape is an ongoing research-driven art series by Zen Teh that explores the intersections of spirituality, ecology, and cultural memory across Asian landscapes. Since 2014, the project has spanned across Thailand, Japan, and the forthcoming Seoul iteration (September 2026 — March 2027), the series investigates how ancient wisdom systems, ritual practices, and environmental knowledge shape human relationships with nature. Through immersive installations, participatory research, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Teh examines landscapes as living archives embedded with cosmological understanding, spiritual resonance, and ecological consciousness.
Evolving Project Across Asia
Across these evolving contexts, The Imperative Landscape positions art as a bridge between ancient knowledge and contemporary environmental consciousness. By integrating traditional craft practices, community collaboration, scientific inquiry, and emerging technologies such as photogrammetry, the series proposes new ways of understanding interconnectedness between humans, landscapes, and cosmological systems. Ultimately, the project reflects on how spirituality, ecological awareness, and cultural heritage can offer alternative frameworks for reimagining our relationship to the environment in an increasingly fragmented and technologically mediated world.
Research Overview
What began as a residency project at Angkrit Gallery in Chiang Rai in 2013-2014 (as part of Objectifs residency programme), expanded into a massive installation at the Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai in 2023. The Imperative Landscape (2023): Astronomical Alignments at the Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai, is a site-specific installation at Rai Chern Tawan Meditation Center exploring celestial alignments and Thai spiritual cosmologies through collaboration with astronomer Dr. Farung Surina Bunthit, drawing connections between ancient astronomical knowledge and humanity’s diminishing relationship with the natural world in the Anthropocene.
In its second iteration in Japan, as part of the Setouchi Triennale, the research extended toward coastal ecologies, water rituals, and island communities, investigating how maritime environments shape collective memory, migration, and spiritual continuity. A three-part installation in collaboration with Architectural Designer, Nicole Teh, was presented in two ancient Shinto shrines and a former barber shop along Utazu's heritage street.
Art x Spirituality
At its core, The Imperative Landscape engages with urgent global questions surrounding ecological crisis, cultural displacement, and the loss of ancestral knowledge systems in increasingly urbanised and technologically mediated societies.
The series proposes that spirituality, craft, and ecological wisdom are not isolated traditions of the past, but living frameworks that continue to shape how communities understand their relationship to land, water, and the cosmos.
The next chapter, Tides of Alignment: Water, Ritual, and Urban Memory in Seoul, will be developed during a residency at ARKO Art Studio, an inquiry into urban ecological systems, examining the coexistence of mountains, waterways, ritual practices, and rapid urbanisation within contemporary Seoul.
